The study, which was conducted by Nicholas H. Wolfinger, a professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah, also found that women married since the year 2000 who had two sexual partners prior to marriage surprisingly were just as likely to get divorced as women who had 10 or more sexual partners.

According to The Christian Post, Wolfinger said the study explores the complex relationship between premarital sex and marital stability.

"Earlier research found that having multiple sex partners prior to marriage could lead to less happy marriages, and often increased the odds of divorce. But sexual attitudes and behaviors continue to change in America, and some of the strongest predictors of divorce in years gone by no longer matter as much as they once did," Wolfinger notes.

The study also found that the main reason that women choose abstinence is religion.

“Women who marry as virgins are far more likely than other women to attend church at least once a week,” said Wolfinger.

"It's also noteworthy that virgin marriages increasingly became the domain of religious women between the 1980s and 2000s — and during the same years, the divorce rate for virgin brides continued to drop. These findings make sense in light of the fact that people who attend church frequently have lower divorce rates than do non-participants," he added.